Dave Parlato - especially for his playing on Duke Of Prunes (OF), Zoot Allures (ZA), Filthy Habits (SD)Arthur Barrow – especially for his playing with Vinnie behind Frank's solosHolger Czukay – for his creativity and his humourMick Karn - for not copying Jaco's style

_________________Active forum member since 2005 - R E T I R E D from public forum activity in 2013

Of course, I think we're comparing apples and oranges (or pumpkins and prunes if you prefer)--not just in terms of genre, but also in terms of role in the band. Ron Carter isn't as flashy as some later fusion bassists, and he isn't as melodic as Pastorius. However, he was the glue that held a lot of jazz combos together. There's a reason why he seems to show up on every jazz recording after 1965.

Phil Lesh and Mike Gordon are masters of playing basslines that intertwine with guitar and piano leads.

It's a lowdown, dirty shame how underrated Jack Casady is. His work on the classic Airplane albums is tremendous, but I think his work in Hot Tuna might be even better.

I would also add that Mike Rutherford's bass playing on ABACAB's "No Reply At All" is also underrated. I didn't really appreciate that song until I saw a youtube clip of Phish mangling it at the Rock n' Roll Hall of fame inductions.

_________________"And in a dying world, creation is revolution"--Waldo Frank

_________________Everytime we picked a booger we'd flip it on this one winduh. Every night we'd contribute, 2, 3, 4 boogers. We had to use a putty knife, man, to get them damn things off the winduh. There was some goober ones that weren't even hard...

From the title, at first, I thought the thread was about bass players with Zappa. I see now that the idea is not that limited. That makes choosing harder. Let's see if I can break it down easily enough.

Patrick O'Hearn amongst the musicians that played and toured with Zappa is the one that first really stood out. I like Tom Fowler and Arthur Barrow too. However, O'Hearn made a great first impression back in the day and I'll stick with him.

John Entwistle was always the one rock n roll bass player to blow me away. His impact is forever lasting. However, I do concede that Les Claypool certainly has the stuff to be placed in the same space as Entwistle. I feel that I'd be wrong not to make some kind of special mention to Jack Bruce who back in the days of Cream, was hailed by most rock enthusiasts as the greatest electric bass player that ever lived. Sadly not being able to generate enough excitement towards his material that could reflect and/or retain much of his grandeur afterwards.

Regarding jazz, there was absolutely no bass player that ever made a splash onto the scene with the impact that Jaco Pastorius did. None that I could mention offhand. Such promise! A lot of it fulfilled. Sadly he died so young and so stupidly.

There are other great bass players worth of mention of course. And everyone has a name to toss based on what they grew up listening to, as we can see by the names offered on this tread. However, I'd like to give a special shout-out for one that's usually overlooked.

I'm talking about Paul McCartney who is so famous for his song writing abilities, that we forget how he practically single-handedly changed the concept of rock n roll bass playing, making it a lot more melodic than the usual plucking at the root note as it was. Not much to talk about now perhaps, but a revolutionary concept in its time. True - It has been argued that Brian Wilson was also doing as much. I'm not sure I'm in agreement with that, but either way the popularity of the Beatles world over gave Paul the upper hand in terms of influence. I think so anyway.

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